MASAKA - The Luwero Woman MP Brenda Nabukenya has said she will serve for only two terms in Parliament and warns her counterparts against overstaying in power.

“I expect to be a Woman MP for two terms only and then after I will give it to someone else,” she told a conference of central region women in politics held in Masaka recently.

“If you do that you will be accountable to society and you will be respected,” said the legislator, speaking at Hotel Brovad.

The conference, held under the theme: “Taking stalk and marching forward”, was convened by Forum for Women in Democracy and was aimed at increased accountability towards women-centred political processes.

A member of the Democratic Party (DP), Nabukenya said senior leaders ought to give way for a younger crop to take on the mantle.

“MPs and other leaders in high positions should not stay for a long time but should create space for the young ones to take over,” she said.

Speaking on her future, Nabukenya said: “I want to move to another level. It might not be the presidency but in another capacity.”

During the conference, several issues were brought to fore, including the fading role of provision by men within households, poor service delivery across the country, among others.

The women from central Uganda were concerned that MPs get a lot of money at the expense of service delivery.

“MPs are getting a lot of money and yet women are dying while giving birth,’ said Harriet Nambi, the district woman councilor for Mityana.

Patricia Munabi the executive director of Forum for Women in Democracy argued that there is need to reduce the size of Parliament so that more money can be channeled to social services.

Nabukenya agreed with the women’s idea of pruning the Parliament.

“I know that I am a beneficiary of Parliament but I am also aware that it is big, a challenge we are grappling with. It is my duty to try and change that,” she said.
‘Not getting married any time soon’

Meanwhile, on how she managed to win elections yet she is unmarried, Nabukenya told the audience that the issue came up during the bye-election campaigns and that she got “pissed off” by such concerns.

She informed the women that she tactfully asked the electorate whether they knew the wife of Abraham Byandala (minister of transport) who was in a campaign trail of her NRM rival at the time.

And that when the gathering chorused a ‘NO’ in response, it gave her a breakthrough.

The MP emphasized that it is not being married that will enable one articulate issues in Parliament but instead one’s ability will. She went on to blame women who always like parading their husbands during campaigns.

Also, the youthful MP revealed that she is not planning to get married soon.

“I am still young. When the right time comes you will enjoy the wedding,” she said.

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